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Author Archives: Rob Denton
Differential gene expression turns on salamander attack mode
The transcriptomics field is boomin’. Approaches like RNA-seq have opened the flood gates to hundreds and hundreds of investigations that compare gene expression between biologically-interesting phenotypes, variants, species, etc. Plastic phenotypes have been a fascinating area of study for decades … Continue reading
A few good molecular ecologists: six months and 116 posts later
My usual Wednesday spot on The Molecular Ecologist is primetime real estate: a lot of journal table-of-contents get sent out on Tuesday/Wednesday and whole slew of people are in the office looking at computer screens. This usually produces a nice readership on Wednesdays, … Continue reading
Posted in blogging, Molecular Ecology views, Uncategorized
1 Comment
Interview: The landscape of Ian Wang's reading list
To follow up on some recent posts on The Molecular Ecologist about landscape genetics and isolation by environment, I brought in an expert. Dr. Ian Wang is an assistant professor in the Department of Environment Science, Policy, and Management at … Continue reading
Migration on the brain
If you’ve watched any number of nature shows in your lifetime, you’ve seen the astounding migrations made by salmonid fishes. You can count on seeing a shot of salmon darting against the current and catapulting themselves over turbulent falls (like … Continue reading
Posted in Molecular Ecology, the journal, natural history, RNAseq, transcriptomics
Tagged migration, Salmon
2 Comments
Don't trust your data: reviewing Bioinformatics Data Skills
The Molecular Ecologist receives a small commission for purchases made on Bookshop.org via links from this post. There is little debate on the importance of bioinformatics for the present and future of science. As molecular ecologists, we are likely more aware of this … Continue reading
Live fast and reproduce young
Here is one for the “simple, elegant science” folder: a new paper in PNAS by Julia Schroeder and colleagues that demonstrates a fitness disadvantage in offspring from older parents. While there a multitude of papers out there showing that gametes have … Continue reading
Killer genetic differentiation
Like most of you out there, I sometimes get bogged down in literature, and the pressure to keep up with new methods can lead to a towering “to-read” folder. I feel forced to read many of these papers no matter … Continue reading
Reviewing the reviews: Twelve years of Landscape Genetics
Landscape genetics has grown feverishly since its first formal definition in 2003 (Manel et al). The beauty of combining genetic, environmental, and spatial variation to answer biological questions sure is alluring, and the quest for improving the methodology of landscape … Continue reading
Phylogenetic dispersion aversion
How biological communities form and are maintained is a complex and fascinating area of molecular ecology. Gerhold et al. offer up an interesting take on community phylogenetics in a recent Functional Ecology paper that argues against the use of phylogenetic dispersion as … Continue reading